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This is pretty awesome:

Oliver Burkeman:

To sum up the Stoic perspective very simply: it’s your beliefs about the world that cause distress, not the world itself.

Eric:

And this leads to a very powerful technique for increasing happiness.

Oliver Burkeman:

Yes. It’s what the Stoics call, “the premeditation” – that there’s actually a lot of peace of mind to be gained in thinking carefully and in detail and consciously about how badly things could go.

In most situations you’re going to discover that your anxiety or your fears about those situations were exaggerated. It’s so tempting to respond to anxiety and worry with reassurance, whether it’s in ourselves or our kids or our friends. Somebody is really worried about the future. You want to try to convince them that it’s all going to be okay. But of course the problem is that it reinforces the belief that if things weren’t okay that would be a catastrophe.